Breaking News: Now it’s Rasmussen out at Tour de France

It’s been a tough week at the Tour de France. First Alexander Vinoukorov and his Astana team were sent home for a blood doping violation. Now, today after an amazing performance in this morning’s Tour action, Michael Rasmussen is on his way home as well.

This has been an unprecendent time for cycling. Over the last year so many great cyclists have been caught using, admitted using, or just caught up in drug scandals, it’s become just plain hard to keep track of them all.

Rasmussen’s trouble stems from rules violations this past June, when he apparently was not in Mexico training as he told drug testing officials. The Danish cyclist was dismissed from the Danish National cycling team last week after an investigation.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme was quoted on VeloNews.com as saying, “What I regret more than ever is that we didn’t have this information on June 29, or on the following days before the Tour started. We would have made the Rabobank team face up to their responsibilities.”

What does this mean for the Tour de France? Well, in racing action, it means that the lead rider is out of the race and that moves everyone up a spot. But more importantly, it means that the drug problems in the sport just continue to be systemic. Cycling seems to have a drug problem that it just can’t kick.

Someone asked me recently if I had ever thought about taking performance enhancing drugs. I thought about it for a minute and here’s the answer I gave: “No. It never crossed my mind.” Never once did I ever even think about it.

Many people have expressed sadness at the continuing problems with the sport. I’m sure that we’ll hear even more of it now. It’s really time to stop. If not, there may not be a future for the sport at all.

For a story on Rasmussen’s exit on VeloNews, click here.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space.

Technique: Drinking on the run

If you’re planning on running through the aid stations in your next race, you may want to think about, and practice, drinking without slowing down too much. This takes a bit of technique to accomplish.

I like to break this down into three steps that I call: CRUSH, SUCK, SWALLOW.

I know it sounds funny. Let me walk you through it.

As you approach an aid station, start over to the side of the road where the volunteers are standing with their water cups. Keep in mind that many of these folks may have never passed a cup to a runner before, so be patient and don’t get mad if you miss grabbing a cup. Pick an area of the aid station that is less crowded, but close enough to the front side of the aid station that if you miss getting a cup, you’ll have another chance.

Slow down slightly as you come up to the aid station and open your fingers in a half-moon like you’re holding a cup. In other words, be ready to take the cup when it hits your hand. Just make sure to close your fingers and gently pick it up off the volunteer’s hand.

Once you’ve got it, move back out into the road to avoid the rest of the traffic in the aid station.

Now comes the important part. As you drink, you need to avoid spilling all the fluid out and choking on it. That’s where the three steps come in.

First, gently CRUSH the cup. This turns the cup into a spout to pour the water into your mouth. It also keeps the water from splashing out.

Second, SUCK the water into your mouth and let it sit there for a moment. Now take a breath. Taking this breath before swallowing the water is key to avoiding choking on the water.

Third, SWALLOW the water.

Remember that you can’t swallow water and take a breath at the same time. If you do, you’ll choke. So taking a breath with the water in your mouth allows you to then swallow it between breaths.

Remember, CRUSH, SUCK, SWALLOW. Three distinct steps.

Now, I know that I could have called this CRUSH, POUR, SWALLOW, but you’ll remember CRUSH, SUCK, SWALLOW, won’t you?

Practice this on a your training runs. It can keep you moving and avoid having you coughing water back up all over yourself.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space.

Breaking News: Alexander Vinokourov out of Tour de France

In a very sad turn of events at the Tour de France, Alexander Vinokourov and his Astana Cycling team have withdrawn from the grand tour due to a suspected blood doping violation. Sources are reporting that an initial blood sample taken after his stage victory on Saturday in the individual time trial has come back positive for blood doping.

Vinokourov, one of the pre-race favorites, had crashed early in the Tour, suffering serious injuries, but he was able to continue the race. On Saturday, he won the individual time trial and then on Sunday he bonked on the first day of riding in the Pyrenees, losing close to half an hour to his rivals.

In a dramatic comeback Monday, Vinokourov broke away from the field on to win the next mountain stage. Although he did not make up enough time to move back into contention for the race win, he showed that he still had the power to win a tough stage. The course of events is reminiscent of last year’s Tour, when Floyd Landis melted down on a mountain stage in the alps and then came back the next day to break away dramatically and win the stage.

Today the news breaks that Vinokorouv may have been blood doping.

Blood doping involves taking a transfusion of blood from either yourself or someone else, to increase oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. In this case, initial reports suggest that Vinokourov may have used another person’s blood. Additional “B” samples will now be tested, in addition to samples that were taken after his stage win yesterday. For an article on blood doping, click here.

David Millar, one of the UK’s top riders, was quoted by VeloNews as saying: “I wanted to believe it was a really good day [for Vinokourov]. It makes me very sad. Vino is one of my favorite riders. He’s one of the most beautiful riders in the peloton. If a guy of his stature and class has done that, we all might as well pack our bags and go home right now.”

We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out, but this initially appears to be yet another devastating blow for cycling.

For additional details as they become available, visit VeloNews.com by clicking here.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space.

Races: Stellar field to race at New York City Half-Marathon

Olympians Abdi Abdirahman and Alan Culpepper and former marathon world record-holder Khalid Khannouchi will headline a stellar American field for the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE on Sunday, August 5, according to New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. In addition, former half-marathon world record holder Halle Gebrselassie will headline the international field.

The men’s race is shaping up to be among the greatest half-marathons ever contested in the United States, with the previously announced Ethiopian distance great Haile Gebrselassie leading the field in his New York debut.

Culpepper, 34, a two-time Olympian, he scored one of the biggest victories of his career at the men’s marathon Olympic Trials in 2004, outkicking Meb Keflezighi in the final stretch to win by five seconds. Culpepper is expected to defend his title later this year at the Olympic Trials in New York. He lives and trains near Boulder, CO, with his wife, Shayne, herself a two-time Olympian on the track.

Khannouchi, 35, who lives in nearby Ossining, NY, set the U.S. marathon record at the 2002 Flora London Marathon, finishing in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 38 seconds, to lower his own world mark and claim his fifth title in a
World Marathon Majors race. He is one of only two men in the last 80 years to break the marathon world record twice, and the only man in history to have run under 2:06 three times.

In addition to the American speedsters, Halle Gebrselassie, who broke the World Record a few weeks ago in the 20K and one hour distance, will be in the field. And there are rumors that others top runners are coming as well.

The race will serve as an important stop on the road to Beijing for these and other leading Americans, as many of them plan to return to New York and Central Park for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon on
Saturday, November 3.

For a link to the bios of the Men’s Elite field, click here. The Women’s Elite bios can be accessed here.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space.

Racing: Alan Webb sets new mile American record

Alan Webb continues to be one of our greatest American runners.

This past weekend in Belgium, he broke the 25 year-old American Record in the Mile. He ran a stunning 3:46:91, which is almost a full second faster than the old record. The time was the eight fastest time in the world.

He plans to continue improving that mark as well. He’s aiming to win the World Championships this coming August in Osaka, Japan. And he has an eye on the Mile World Record as well. That mark, set by Hicham El-Guerrouj’s, is 3:43.13.

There is a great article about Alan Webb and his record run in USA Today that you can access by clicking here.

Also, there is a video of the run where you can watch the race. It’s located here.

Finally, if you want to see the historic Hicham El-Guerrouj run from 1999, it is availalbe on YouTube by clicking here. The video quality of this clip is not that great.

Keep at it Alan!

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space

Race Preview: White River 50 Mile Trail Run

If you’ve been following our blog over the last few months, you know that my friends Karl Johnson and Andy Glassner and me have been preparing for the White River 50 Mile Trail Run. The time has finally come for the event.

The White River 50 mile near Mt. Rainer in Washington State. For those who know the area a little better, the race course is close to the Crystal Mountain ski resort. The difficulty of the race is three fold: 1) the distance (of course), 2) the elevation and 3) the climbing.

The race starts at just under 3,000 feet elevation and has two major climbs that will take us up to around 6,000 feet.

Those two climbs will be the most serious test: the first climb of about 3,000 feet looks from the elevation chart to last a bit more than 6 miles. This one comes early, from miles 7 to about 13. The second monster climb comes in the 30 mile range and lasts for eight miles. Between these two climbs alone that’s 14 miles of climbing with at least 6,000 feet of elevation gain.

The race is billed as the USATF 50 Mile championship so there should be some fast people out there. The race is capped at 400 runners, but the official web-site says that only about 200 were registered as of July 13th.

The weather looks like it will be good this weekend with temperatures around 60 degrees. At the higher elevation, the exposed areas of the trail will feel hot, but it could be much hotter at this time of the year.

It’s going to be an exciting time and I’ll tell you all about it as it unfolds.

The race’s official web-site can be accessed by clicking here.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also now available on Facebook and My Space

Training: Is running on the treadmill the same as running outdoors?

I get asked the question a lot: “is it the same to run on the treadmill as it is outdoors?”

The short answer is that because of the lack of wind-resistance pushing against you, it does require less effort to run on a treadmill at the same pace. This means that if you were used to running say 7.0 MPH outside and you were running 7.0 MPH on the treadmill, you would not need as much energy to achieve the same speed. This assumes that you have the incline setting at 0% grade (flat).

The trick to keeping your indoor running equivalent to your outdoor workouts is to use the incline settings on the treadmill. As a basic rule, I would suggest that everyone set the incline setting to about 1.5% to counter this lack of wind-resistance. This is not enough that you’d be running “up-hill” but it does provide more resistance.

For a more precise answer, there are many great equivalency tables that provide an pace equivalency between outdoor running and running on the treadmill. Jack Daniel’s has a good one in his book The Daniel’s Running Formula. However, I’ll give a link below where you can find a nice table on the Internet.

To help in reading the table, the first column on your left is the pace setting for the treadmill itself. Then across the table are the pace equivalencies for outdoor running on flat ground at each of the inclines listed. Obviously it gets harder (meaning you must expend more energy) as the incline increases at any given pace.

It is best to keep the pace as close to your outdoor running speed as possible to keep your leg turn-over approximately the same as your outdoor running. In other words, if you run 8:00min/mile outside and then were to run 12:00 min/mile (5.0MPH) with 10% grade indoors - although the energy expenditure would be about the same - your legs will be turning over much more slowly and you’ll also be running steeply uphill. It would be better to run 7.0MPH with a 3.0% grade, which also is about equivalent to 8:00 min/mile.

This last point of course is not true if you’re trying to do hill training, then you’d want to use the steeper incline settings (if that’s what you’re after).

You can visit the equivalency table by clicking here.

Coach Joe English, Portland Oregon, USA
Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com

Guest Writer: On being slow and loving it

A good friend of mine named Terry read my piece on “being slow and loving it.” In the article, one of the points that I was trying to make is that sometimes if we’re too obsessed with speed, we may miss some other important part of the experience. Terry wrote a comment on the posting that I’d like to re-publish here, because she makes that point clear in her own wonderful way.

I truly enjoyed reading your shift in perception about speed. I am already slow, so don’t need to work on “getting there.”

Last month, my husband Bob and I participated in the Pacific Crest Half Ironman with the Team in Training. Bob won his age group! This was a first for him and we were literally jumping up and down when we saw the results in the morning. He said that the only thing he ever won in his entire life was a pie eating contest when he was in sixth grade.

As for me, I was the last person across the finish line. I loved every moment of the race. It was one of my favorite events ever because of the Team, the coaches, the scenery and the people from Sunriver.

While out on the bike, I began to notice butterflies on the course. At first, there was one here, one there, every so often, but by the time I got to the aid station, there were dozens flying around. I said to the volunteer, who was standing in a swirl of butterflies, “Wow, this must be the butterfly stop!”

He replied, “They just appeared moments ago. I don’t know where they came from.”

As I continued on, I decided to begin counting them. I had an elaborate system for counting. They had to appear to me. I couldn’t go look for them. If I saw one peripherally and turned my head, but didn’t see it completely, it didn’t count. If I saw it’s shadow on the road, but could see the actual butterfly, it didn’t count. I couldn’t count the same one twice, of course, so I had to be positive it was different or it didn’t count.

I looked at my watch and began to count. 1…….2 (no)….2……3…….4..(no, doesn’t count)……4 After I got to 5, I became distracted, started to think that I was too far behind, wondered where I was and began to play with my little computer. I was checking my pace, how far I had gone, my average speed, etc. when suddenly a butterfly flew right at me and hit my left arm. I saw this one for sure, even felt it. “Okay! I’ll keep counting.” I said out loud, and continued. 6……7……..8 (no) 8…….9……10.

I looked at my watch and exactly 10 minutes had passed. So I started to do the math, which was not easy for me at that moment. All at once I realized that I saw 10 butterflies in 10 minutes, which means “60 Butterflies an Hour!”

“Whoa! I am going 60 butterflies an hour! How cool is that?”

So you can see that I take that whole, “…different drummer” quote by Thoreau to a whole new level.

I’m looking forward to training with you for another season, Joe. Just know that my pace may be measured in some unique way, like butterflies per hour, for example.

Terry Jordan
Portland, Oregon

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also available on Yahoo! 360 and My Space.